


Truth is the Greatest Pain

by lucy_wf



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Cinnamon Roll Papyrus, Family Feels, Gen, King Papyrus, Mild Language, Papyrus Being Papyrus, Post-Undertale Neutral Route - King Papyrus Ending, Protective Sans, Sans Doesn't Remember Resets, Sans Needs A Hug, Undertale Neutral Route, Worried Papyrus, because when would papyrus be anything but a cinnamon roll, everyone but sans and papyrus is just mentioned, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 11:10:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13925913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucy_wf/pseuds/lucy_wf
Summary: The king is gone. Undyne is gone. Alphys is gone. The lady behind the door is gone. Sans and Papyrus are the only ones who remain; without anyone else to turn to, the people have elected Papyrus as the new ruler. Meanwhile, Sans tries to keep his brother from finding out the truth about what really happened to his friends, but the truth can only stay hidden for so long.





	Truth is the Greatest Pain

**Author's Note:**

> Did you know that, if you kill every single boss BUT Papyrus, you get the King Papyrus neutral ending? It is quite possibly one of the saddest endings and you’re a terrible person if you ever got it (I did…). The phone call you get in this route is fully transcribed at the beginning in case you don’t know the ending, so don’t worry.
> 
> Keep in mind that Sans’ dialogue is in all lowercase, but Papyrus’ is capitalised normally. It just looked a bit weird all uppercase. Sorry…
> 
> Anyway, enjoy this mess.

* (Ring… ring…)

* hello? anyone there?

* guess i’ll just leave a message.

* so… it’s been a while.

* since you left…

* things have gotten really strange.

* overnight, a bunch of people mysteriously disappeared.

* as well as the human souls.

* people were heart-broken. everyone they looked up to…

* everything they were relying on, in one night, disappeared.

* everyone clamoured to elect a new ruler as fast as possible.

* so, uh…

* by process of elimination…

* papyrus became the ruler?

* why doesn’t he talk to you about this…

Hello!!!

Human!!!

It’s strange.

Asgore, Alphys, Mettaton, and Undyne went away.

Sans says they went on vacation.

I hope they’re having fun!!

Oh yeah. I’m the ruler of the underground now!!!

Everything is improving a lot here.

Productivity is up!

Because I tell everyone to keep working.

And, no one goes hungry!!!

Because I cook everyone spaghetti.

Meanwhile, my brother handles the paperwork.

Strangely…

He seems to be working hard?

This sounds messed up… but…

I’m proud… of him???

Oh no!!!!

As for our human policy…

We’ve decided, um.

Sans, what was it?

* we can’t judge humans to be all good or bad.

Right! So it’s case-by-case!

If they’re evil… we give them puzzles!

If they’re good… we also give them puzzles!

That seems to be the best way!

…

…

Is Sans gone?

You know… Don’t tell my brother, but…

Despite the improvements we’ve made…

Sometimes this job is kind of hard.

Since the king went away…

Lots of people just want to give up.

Sometimes, even my best encouragement…

Doesn’t work.

And, and, I miss Undyne, too.

She never answers my phone calls…

She must be having a lot of fun on vacation.

I just wish she’d send a postcard.

…

But hey!!!

I won’t give up!

I can’t give up!

I have to make everyone give up giving up!

We’ll get out of here, slowly!!!

Then we can all hang out again!!!

Nyeh heh heh!!!

* (Click…)

 

 

Sans recalled the voice message they’d left the human a few weeks before, and sighed.

Ever since the kid's bloodthirsty rampage through the underground, things had gotten completely hectic. The king was gone. Undyne was gone. Alphys was gone. The lady behind the door was gone. The only one who remained was Papyrus; and while Sans didn't understand why the human had chosen to spare him, he wasn't going to question the anomaly's whims. That would be a pointless exercise, and a waste of time and energy, two things the skeleton severely lacked at the moment. He was working himself to the bone (heh) every single day, constantly buried in mountains of paperwork, always exhausted, and falling asleep in random places even more often than before.

It was for the better. At least he still had his brother, and that was all he asked for.

Still, it was hard. He knew fully well that all his effort was pointless. What did it matter if the kingdom had a proper ruler? What did it matter if someone was keeping things running and giving hope to the people?

It was pointless. Soon enough, the human would just end the timeline and start all over again, in that sick, twisted game of theirs. Soon enough, he'd wake up in Snowdin without any memory of the current events, and only his reports to tell him they'd all gone back to the beginning yet again.

How many times had it been already? Sans had lost count. And he would never know what had happened in each of those countless timelines the human had created, over and over again. So why did he bother?

The answer was simple. He knew the truth, but his brother didn't. And he didn't deserve to. Papyrus didn't deserve to know how his life was stuck in an endless loop with no possible escape, he didn't deserve to know that the human who was behind it all had murdered his best friend and so many others. Bearing that knowledge alone was much, much harder than at least having someone who could understand too; but, for his brother, Sans would gladly endure it on his own. Keeping his brother happy was worth any effort. He couldn't share his pain with anyone, but he couldn't, wouldn't give up either.

And so he got up every day, and worked his metaphorical ass off, and ate Papyrus' spaghetti without any complaints (he'd actually, inexplicably, gotten better at cooking, so that wasn't so bad). And so he told his brother that Undyne had gone on vacation, that she'd be back soon, and started writing and giving him postcard after postcard, and came up with a thousand excuses for the absence of calls from her.

It was hard. But it was worth it.

"Brother?"

Sans was suddenly pulled from his thoughts by his brother's voice. He turned to face the taller skeleton. The royal regalia looked somewhat out of place on him, almost too serious for his light-hearted demeanour. But he wore the crown with pride, and did his best to fill the shoes of the previous king. One thing was for certain: nobody tried as hard as Papyrus.

“oh, hey bro. what’s up?”

He realized, a moment too late, how shocked his brother seemed. Now that he looked at him more carefully, in fact, Papyrus actually seemed to be holding back tears. That was not a good sign.

“paps? what happened?”

The other said nothing still. He just stared at Sans with incredible disbelief written all over his face.

It was then that Sans finally noticed what he was clutching in his gloved hands.

It was a bundle of letters and postcards.

All of them signed by Undyne.

Some of them unfinished.

And each and every one of them dated in the future.

Sans’ eyesockets went dark.

_shit._

“Brother. You have been writing these, haven’t you…?”

Sans looked up at the taller skeleton, whose expression made it very clear that his words had been a statement, not a question. His brother might be childish and naïve at times, but he wasn’t stupid. Not by a long shot.

“papyrus, look. i can explain, i swear i can.”

“No, Sans.” Papyrus looked at him, tears now running down his face, and the other averted his gaze. “You’ve… you’ve been lying to me, haven’t you? Undyne would never just disappear without telling me first. Mettaton wouldn’t just abandon his fans. And Alphys… And the king… And the human souls…” He shook his head slowly and sadly. “Everyone vanished overnight. Just at the same time the human was here.”

The smaller skeleton watched in horror as his brother realized everything he’d tried to keep away from him.

“It was the human.” Again, it wasn’t a question. “It was the human, it’s their fault, and now everyone is gone and they’re never coming back.” He gave Sans an expression so hurt and full of pain that the monster felt his soul shatter into a million tiny pieces.

_i can’t believe this. how did i screw this up so badly? how did he even find the letters? how did he immediately figure out-_

“Why did you lie to me?”

“…what?”

“Why did you lie to me?!” Papyrus lifted his voice even more than normal; only this time, he wasn’t motivated by enthusiasm, but by anger. Sans couldn’t help but to flinch. “You knew about this! You tricked me! You wrote postcards and pretended they were from Undyne!” His voice slowly trailed off into a sob, now bereft of anger, but dripping with disappointment. “You made me believe they’d come back…! You made me believe they’d be here to help me soon…”

“papyrus…”

“I’m… I’m going to go work on some puzzles.” The skeleton turned around and rushed out of the room, but Sans still saw his tears and heard his inconsolable sobs.

Now alone, the monster stared at the door for a few more moments, and then slowly looked away. Everything had gone wrong. His brother knew what the human had done. His brother knew his friends were gone forever. His brother no longer had a hope to cling onto, and it was all his fault.

_he probably hates me._

Sans was lost. He had no idea what to do. The only string keeping him in place, driving him forward and allowing him to keep on going, it had broken. His brother would probably never even want to see him again.

Why wouldn’t the human just destroy the wretched timeline already?? There was nothing left. Only a kingdom now deprived of the only hope they still had. For once, he’d be more than grateful to just wake up and not remember anything about this nightmare.

But no. That’d be far too easy, wouldn’t it. The anomaly seemed determined to make him and everyone else suffer as much as possible. Sans wondered if they got any satisfaction out of it, or if they were simply motivated by curiosity. Maybe toying with their lives was nothing more than a fun pastime for them.

He buried his head on his hands. He might as well just give up. There was nothing left to fight for.

Suddenly, he caught a flash of red in the corner of his vision. Lifting his head slowly, he realized the red was from a cape, and that said cape was attached to his brother’s shoulders. Sans gaped at him, tensing in fearful anticipation. The skeleton had thought he’d never see or talk to his brother again (at least in this timeline), and yet here he was, not even ten full minutes after he’d stormed out of the room.

Predictably, it was still easy to tell he was devastated, Sans noted as he caught him hastily wiping away a few stubborn tears to the rim of his cape. But he didn’t look angry. He didn’t look like he was going to yell at Sans how much he hated him, or something like that. He just looked… tired. The skeleton let his shoulders relax – just a little.

After a long moment, Papyrus finally spoke, his voice sad and so quiet compared to the way he usually talked that it almost sounded like a whisper. “Sans… please. Why did you lie to me? I…” It seemed he was struggling to find the right words. “I know that you meant well. I know you did. You… you wanted to protect me, right? But…” He trailed off yet again, but Sans didn’t dare interrupt him. A few seconds later, his brother drew in a long breath and continued. “But you shouldn’t have hid this from me! I was bound to find out eventually!” He’d been struggling to find words a moment before, but now they flew out of his mouth with no pauses. “Didn’t you think it’d only make things worse?! Didn’t I deserve to know what happened to my friends?! I was… I was sure they’d come back… So why? Why did you do it?!”

Sans didn’t have an answer. He couldn’t possibly tell his brother he’d just assumed the timeline would end before Papyrus ever had a chance to find out the truth. He hadn’t planned this far ahead; why would he have? He had no idea what to do, but at least he had to _try,_ damn it.

“look, bro… i know i shouldn’t have done it. i should’ve been honest with you from the start. but i just couldn’t bring myself to tell you.” It was true. “i figured… it would be best to lie, as long as you were happy.”

“Me? But what about you, Sans?” The skeleton looked up in surprise, unsure of what the other had meant. “You were the only one who knew the truth, right? And you had to carry that burden all on your own.” Sans blinked. Was his brother seriously choosing to worry about his well-being? “That must have been so hard. And you did it anyway, just because you didn’t want me to be sad…”

Without warning, Papyrus burst into tears again.

“no, no, come on. please don’t cry.” Sans was kind of starting to panic. “papyrus, please, i’m sorry. i’m sorry. please don’t cry.”

“W-why, Sans?? It’s not fair!”, Papyrus managed to say between sobs. “Why would you think that you had to go through this alone? You should have told me. You shouldn’t have dealt with everything yourself. It’s... it’s true, I’m very sad now, but at least I have someone else who is sad too! Who understands!! And you… you didn’t…!”

Sans was almost too shocked to answer. How come his brother was so worried about him? About someone who’d lied and failed in every possible way? It just didn’t seem possible. He didn’t understand. He knew he never would.

“you don’t have to worry about me, bro. it’s you who’s important. you’re always what’s most important. i didn’t care what i had to do, i just… i just wanted to keep you happy. you don’t deserve this. i just wanted to protect you from it. but i completely failed, an-”

“But I do have to worry!!!” Papyrus firmly grabbed the smaller skeleton’s shoulders. “You’re important too! Can’t you see that? I want you to be happy too! And you did so much, Sans, and I know everything you did was with good intention. You kept all this for yourself, and you worked so hard, and I never noticed something was wrong! What kind of brother does that make _me?”_

“pap-“

“No, Sans. You did do things wrong, but so did I. We’re both to blame here, okay? Please don’t try to put the blame on yourself. It’s okay. We’ll be okay, we’ll make things good again, I know we will.”

Sans sighed; he knew it was useless to try and argue with his brother. He’d never be able to win. So he just smiled sadly, and to his surprise, he felt tears prickling at his eye(sockets) for what seemed to be the first time in years. He hadn’t known he was even able to cry anymore. Everything that had happened, the experiments, the anomaly, the reports, the countless timelines they were all stuck on, it had been too much. It had broken him, to the point where he couldn’t even _feel_ depressed anymore. It was like he’d had no tears left to shed. But there they were, and he could finally feel them start dripping down, finally releasing all his tension and all his frustration and all the anxiety that had been welling up inside him for so long, and it felt good. It felt liberating.

So he let them fall, and wash away the grime and the despair he had been drowning on.

Papyrus was right. They still had each other. And they cared equally about each other, and they wouldn’t let each other down. Not ever again.

“Sans? Are you… are you crying too?” The look on Papyrus’ face had changed again; now, it showed deep concern. “You know what… It’s okay. Crying is okay, you know? Sometimes, it’s just something you need. And I hadn’t seen you cry in so long, I…” Seemingly at a loss for words, Papyrus settled for kneeling down and pulling his brother into a hug. “There, there. It’s okay. Don’t worry.”

At first he’d been taken aback by the sudden hug, but then Sans realized it actually seemed to be exactly what he needed at the moment. So he wrapped his arms around his brother too, and let himself feel at peace, if only for one moment. But it was gone all too fast.

Still, some kind of lingering hope remained. Now that his brother knew the truth, now that he’d shown he wouldn’t be so hurt and angry he’d just turn away from him forever, Sans thought maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to bear his pain. Maybe now it would be easier to get through the day, knowing someone else understood, even if only slightly – after all, Papyrus still didn’t know about the anomaly messing up space-time, and that was not something he would ever reveal. But it was still a relief. At least for this one timeline, he’d try to forget about the anomaly and the loop and everything else.

“I miss them so much, Sans.”

“i know, bro. i miss them too. but you’ll always have me. i promise.”

“And… and you’ll always have me too! And when you’re sad or scared or anything, you can tell me, and we’ll deal with it together! As a team!”

“yeah.” Sans chuckled. “we will.”

 

 

_They still hadn’t broken their embrace when the world was ripped apart once again, yet another timeline thrown into the void and left to be forever forgotten._

**Author's Note:**

> Oh wow, isn’t the human’s timing just the greatest?? =) 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed reading! This is my very first time writing angst/comfort, and I just kinda dove into it blindly and hoped for the best. Did it turn out okay…?
> 
> I want to thank Sad_Thought for giving me this wonderful idea!!! Hope I did it some justice (and you got that hug this timeeee)! 
> 
> Also, the way Papyrus finds out that Sans is lying to him was stolen from, ahem, I mean inspired by this super cool (and emotional… oof) comic by Assorted Jellies: https://assortedjellies.deviantart.com/art/King-Papyrus-Mess-688766308 . Please do check it out!
> 
> If you liked this fic, consider visiting my profile page. I’ve got four more published Undertale stories, all of them one-shots about the Genocide route. 
> 
> Well, I think that’s all for now. As always, feel free to leave suggestions, and feedback is very much appreciated! <3
> 
> Thanks for reading~


End file.
